OFFICE OF THE REGISTRAR

GPA Information

A student's GPA (grade point average) is a number that represents the average grade per credit for classes taken in a given period of time.

Classes that are included or count toward GPA calculations are those having grades of A, B, C, D, or F. Classes with grades of P, N, or NC have no affect upon a student's GPA. Normally, people speak of a GPA for a term or as a cumulative total covering all of the terms up through a particular point in time.

Minnesota State University, Mankato keeps track of three cumulative GPA's for each student:

• Local GPA (strictly Minnesota State University, Mankato courses)
• Transfer GPA (strictly transfer courses)
• Career GPA (includes both Minnesota State University, Mankato and transfer courses)

The GPA for a term can be seen on a transcript at the bottom of each term.

The three cumulative GPA's can be seen on a transcript in the summary information at the end.

GPA's cannot be given out over the telephone or via email.

How the GPA is Calculated

Every term on your record is filled with courses that have some type of grade attached to them. In calculating your GPA, only courses with letter grades of A, B, C, D, and F are used.

Every course carries with it a certain number of "quality points". Quality points are found by multiplying a course's credits by its grade.
To allow us to do the multiplication, we convert letter grades into numbers as follows: A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0.
Thus, a 4-credit class with a B is worth 4 credits x 3 = 12 quality points.

To obtain your GPA for a term, add up the quality points for your courses that term and divide by the total number of credits of those courses. The result will be a number between 0 and 4 which is usually carried out to two decimal places.

Your cumulative GPA is found in the same way using all of the courses you have taken. Transcripts have your GPA already calculated on printed on them, saving you the trouble of doing the arithmetic.

You can also use this online GPA calculator to obtain the GPA for a semester.

How the GPA Can be Changed

There are basically only two ways to increase your GPA (besides taking more and more classes and getting better grades in them)

• Repeating Courses Taking a class in which you obtained a poor grade over again, subject to the new repeat policy, will allow you to have the earlier grade(s) taken out of your GPA calculations and the last grade used instead.
• Academic Re-evaluation This is more complicated process meant for students which have not attended any schools for a period of four years, but are now returning. If a student qualifies, grades for all courses taken prior to that gap of time are removed from GPA calculations.

However, in neither of the above cases are any courses removed from a student's record. All Minnesota State University, Mankato courses taken are still shown on a transcript along with the original grades obtained.

Questions concerning GPA should be directed to

Records and Grades

(room: WA 132, phone: 389-2577)